Too many off-field losses for NFL

Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano watches during NFL football practice at the Colts complex on Wednesday in Indianapolis. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

For all the down-to-the-wire finishes, record-setting performances and outstanding rookies, 2012 will not rank near the top of special years for the NFL.

Not with the lockout of on-field officials that blew apart with a blown call and may have played a role in the playoffs field.

Not with a murder/suicide involving a player, a drunk-driving death involving two others, and the death of a coach’s son at his team’s training camp.

And not with the bounty scandal and league investigation that lingered for months.

When we look back at this season’s remarkable comebacks by Adrian Peterson and Peyton Manning, they might be offset by the sharp image of Golden Tate’s touchdown reception on a desperation pass. The controversial completion lifted Seattle past Green Bay in Week 3, and was the final call by the replacement officials. From that Monday night debacle came a Wednesday night agreement on a new contract for the regular officials — and they were back at work in Baltimore on Thursday night.

To cheers from the fans.

“It was great to have those guys back,” Ravens running back Ray Rice said. “It looked like they knew what they were doing.”

By season’s end, though, there was the usual complaining about flags thrown or kept in pockets, and about the rule book being overwhelmingly long and complex. The officiating dispute and its aftermath — the victory Seattle got over Green Bay has helped the Seahawks make the post-season and could affect the Packers’ seeding in the playoffs — may have been annoying. It wasn’t tragic.

What happened in a span of one week in December was.

Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot and killed his girlfriend and mother of his young daughter on Dec. 1. He then drove to the team complex and, in front of coach Romeo Crennel and general manager Scott Pioli, committed suicide.

Early in the regular season, Ravens receiver Torrey Smith played — and scored two touchdowns — less than 24 hours after his younger brother, Tevin, was killed in a motorcycle accident.

Smith’s performance was memorable and uplifting. The same could be said for how the Colts responded to coach Chuck Pagano being stricken by leukemia.

Pagano began chemotherapy treatments less than a month into the schedule, with offensive co-ordinator Bruce Arians taking over as interim coach. Under Arians, and behind top overall draft pick quarterback Andrew Luck, Indianapolis went 9-3. One year after going 2-14 and earning that first pick, Indy already was in the playoffs when Pagano returned to the sideline this week.

“Professional athletes are funny cats,” Arians said. “When you get them to play for something more than a paycheque, they will do some funny things.”

The league believed the Saints were doing some unethical things, such as conducting a pay-for-pain program that rewarded defensive players for hits on opponents that could knock them out of games. Saints coach Sean Payton was suspended for the season, with GM Mickey Loomis getting eight games.

Former Saints defensive co-ordinator Gregg Williams was barred indefinitely as the mastermind of the bounty program; a league investigation turned up 50,000 pages of documentation.

But four players who also were suspended — Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma (one season) and defensive end Will Smith (four games), former Saints LB Scott Fujita of Cleveland (three games) and former Saints DE Anthony Hargrove (eight games) — appealed and also went to court to fight the punishments. Vilma even filed a defamation lawsuit against NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

By December, Goodell had turned over the case to his former boss, Paul Tagliabue. The former commissioner, while finding fault with nearly everyone in the bounty case, tossed out the suspensions of the four players.